GLASS AND MONUMENTS FORMERLY IN THE CHURCH
OF GILLLNGHAM
By C. R. COUNCER, F.S.A.
I. THE RECORDS
THE often-quoted account, by Baptist Tufton, parish clerk of
GiUingham, of the glass and monuments remaining in the church early
in the seventeenth century was first printed in Thorpe's Registrum
Rojfense, in the year 1769. It is a record of considerable importance,
because nearly everything described by Tufton has since disappeared
from the church, and for most of the subjects represented in the glass
he is the sole authority.
It seemed worth while to reprint Tufton's text from the Registrum,
and, on a diagram of the church, to work out the former position of
the things he describes ; but I soon came to the conclusion that if this
study was to be of any value it would be necessary to offer some
comment on the Beaufitz and other families who were responsible for
so much of the work described by Tufton, and who have been dealt
with very inadequately by the county historians. FinaUy, a chance
hint from Mr. Phihp Rogers, of the Freckleton Training CoUege, in
Lancashhe, that there was MS. material relating to GiUingham in the
Bodleian, led to the discovery there of Tufton's original MS. A series
of photostats, kindly obtained by Mr. R. H. D'Elboux, F.S.A. (to whom
I am much indebted for other help connected with the preparation of
this paper) enabled me to use the original text instead of Thorpe's
printed version.
I cannot altogether blame the critic who may dislike the work U he
complains that the apparatus criticus which has emerged from these
studies notably exceeds in bulk the text which it is designed to elucidate,
and poses more questions than it answers.
Tufton's MS. (Bodl. Gough : Kent 44) is bound up with a number
of pages of MS. notes on GiUingham, probably by Thorpe, dated 1726.
It consists of four f ohos, showing signs of having been folded in four hke
a lawyer's packet, written on both sides and endorsed " old noates of
the Antiquities in GiUingham Church coUected by Mr Baptist Tufton
the parish Clarke, 1616 " in a cursive seventeenth century band. The
main text is written in an elegant court hand, with a number of corrections
and interpolations, mostly heraldic, in the more cursive hand of the
endorsement.
CoUation of the MS. with the printed version in the Registrum shows
a number of points of difference, for which Thorpe was doubtless
160
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FIG 1. GILLINGHAM.
Diagram (not to scale) showing the arrangement of the glass and monuments as described by Tufton and Philipot. [face p. 160
GLASS AND MONUMENTS IN CHURCH OF GILL1NGHAM
responsible. His most serious error was in the date, which for some
unknown reason he has altered from November, 1616, to September,
1621. On the other hand he adds a description of the monuments in
the south (Grange) chancel which no longer exists in the MS. The
version which foUows is taken word for word from the MS., the
seventeenth century interpolations in the cursive hand being printed in
itaUcs, and any helpful additions made by Thorpe in the printed text
being given in square brackets. The letters in heavy type in the margin
are inserted to faeiUtate reference to the lettered windows in my
diagram of the church which accompanies the text. One liberty taken
by Thorpe with the text has been aUowed to stand. Tufton describes
the windows in the foUowing order : D,A,E,B,F,G,G,H,J. I have
foUowed the more logical order adopted by Thorpe.
A second MS.,- which must be nearly coeval with Tufton's and
supplements the latter, is John Philipot's book of church notes,
B. M. Harley 3917. In this the notes on GiUingham occupy three
fohos, 65b-66b. Extracts are here printed as an appendix to Tufton's
text.'
About the end of the eighteenth century Thomas Fisher, F.S.A.,
made a series of admirable drawings and rubbings of the brasses then
remaining at GiUingham. His drawings of the foUowing five subjects
are in the British Museum, and rubbings of portions of all except No. 4
are in the coUection of the Society of Antiquaries. Much of this work
of Fisher's was reproduced by Griffin and Stephenson in theh List
of Monumental Brasses in Kent, 1922 (hereafter as G. & S.).
1. John Beaufitz, 1427, and wfie Isabel. G. & S., Plates XXII and xxrv.
2. WiUiam Beaufitz, priest, 1433. G. & S., PI. XXI.
3. John Beaufitz, 1433, and wife Alice. G. & S., Pis. XXIII and xxrv.
4. Joan, wife of Richard Bamme, in shroud, 1431. G. & S.,
PI. XXV.
5. John Bamme, 1488, and wtfe Ehzabeth. G. & S., PI. XXVI.
GiUingham church to-day exhibits aU too clear evidence of the
drastic " restoration " to which it was subjected about 1868. The
only brasses remaining are those of the two priests, John Bregge,
vicar (undated; he d. 1425) and WiUiam Beaufitz, 1433, the latter
less complete than in Fisher's day but retaining one shield of arms.
Both have been moved from theh original position and placed in the
nave. In the north chancel, which was converted into a vestry and
organ chamber, and in the quhe, the restorers made a complete clearance,
though it is just possible that the indents of the Beaufitz brasses
may remain beneath the modern wooden flooring. The monument of
WiUiam Haward has disappeared, but the incised slab which covered it,
161 u
GLASS AND MONUMENTS IN CHURCH OF GILLINGHAM
iUustrated in Arch. Cant., VI (1866), 300, remains, set in the floor of the
south chancel.
As early as the eighteenth century practicaUy aU the glass had
disappeared, the sole surviving fragment in 1808 being " the remains
of a figure of a bishop " in the east window of the north chancel.1 It is
difficult to see which of Tufton's figures this can have been, and it was
probably a piece obtruded from some other window. There is now no
vestige of ancient glass remaining in the church.
II. TUFTON'S TEXT
A MemoriaU of such Monuments as are now extant in the parrishe
Church of GiUingham in the Countie of Kent as well such as are paynted
upon the glasse windowes as also such as have ben erected over those
who have ben buried in the said Churche, ChanceU and ChappeUs as
they are now to be seene the first daye of November in the yeare of our
Lord God one Thousand Sixe hondred and Sixteene.
[First, in the Westerne windowe, on the South syde of the said
churche, there is no picture.]
A. [Item,] First begynning at ye west end In the first windowe Southwards
[on the South syde of the churche, in the first fight thereof,]
there is the picture of the blessed virgin Marie, sitting with her sonne
upon her knee, and in her left hand a golden scepter, with this inscription
on her right hand much broken and defaced, Misericordiam memento
nostri and wth this inscription on her left hand also broken and defaced,
Secundum peccata nostra que. %And beneath is the portraicture of
Robert Beaufitz who deceased in the yeare of our Lord God 1381 and
lyeth interred in the ChanceU. ^In this uyyndowe is the Coate of Stanhop
[or Thomas of GiUingham.] viz1 Quarterly E.
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